a. (sb.) (the phrase tumble down used attrib. or as sb.] † a. Of a horse: That falls down habitually. Obs. rare–1.
1791. ‘G. Gambado,’ Ann. Horsem., i. (1809), 67. The Noble Puzzle for Tumble down Horses.
b. That is in a tumbling condition; falling or fallen into ruin; dilapidated, ruinous.
1807. [W. Hazlitt], Abridg. Lt. Nat., ii. 89. Nothing will ever persuade you that you are safe in an old tumble-down house, till by living in it the fear dies away of itself.
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxi. His old tumble-down tower yonder.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, ii. The parsonage here’s a tumble-down place, sir, not fit for gentry to live in.
1898. N. & Q., 9th Ser. II. 124. One of the grimiest and most tumbledown of the many dilapidated craft.
c. absol. as sb. A tumble-down house. rare.
1866. Howells, Venet. Life, vii. The tumble-down is patched up and sold at rates astonishing to innocent strangers who come from countries in good repair, where the tumble-down is worth nothing.
